Tag: housing

New legislation will reduce time spent in B&Bs and hostels

Anyone facing homelessness will spend no longer than a week in unsuitable accommodation like bed and breakfasts under new legislation.

The seven day limit on unsuitable temporary accommodation which currently covers families with children and pregnant women will now be extended to protect everyone at risk of homelessness.

Announcing the changes, which will come into effect by May 2021, Housing Minister Kevin Stewart said: “We know that people living in these unsuitable environments can for too long often lack cooking or washing facilities, and some have reported that they cannot have visits from family or friends.

“These experiences have a detrimental effect on people’s physical and mental wellbeing, preventing them from rebuilding their lives.

“While temporary accommodation can offer an important emergency safety net for anyone who finds themselves homeless, such as those fleeing domestic violence, it should be a purely temporary measure.

“In Scotland we are already world-leading in tackling homelessness, and now this new legislation, which is a UK first, will make sure that the time anyone spends in unsuitable temporary accommodation is as short as possible before moving to a more appropriate, permanent home.

“We recognise the importance of a settled home in supporting people to live their life with good health, wellbeing and a sense of community and belonging.

“That’s why we’re investing £32.5 million, which includes more than half of our £50 million Ending Homelessness Together Fund, to support local authorities to prioritise settled accommodation for all.”

Research published by Crisis last year gathered experiences of 74 people across Edinburgh, East Lothian, Glasgow, Midlothian, Aberdeenshire and Highland who have faced months in unsuitable temporary accommodation such as B&Bs.

It showed that these experiences damage people’s mental health and job prospects, entrenching their homelessness.

Jon Sparkes, Chief Executive of homeless charity Crisis, said: “We strongly welcome the announcement that the Scottish Government will change the law so that people will no longer have to live in the most unsuitable forms of temporary accommodation for longer than seven days.

“This marks a major achievement for our Life in Limbo campaign, a three year project which has sought to put an end to lengthy and dehumanising stays in unsupported hostels, hotels and B&Bs.

“This decision is a recognition of the resolve of our clients to shine a light on the inhumane conditions they were experiencing and the determination to ensure no one else was subjected to these prolonged stays.

“Making sure that everyone has a home where they can begin to rebuild their lives benefits all of us. Once again Scotland has shown it is a world leader in tackling homelessness and this commitment is a major step forward towards it being the first nation in Great Britain to end homelessness for good.”

i_wont_last_long_in_here_experiences_of_unsuitable_temporary_accommodation_in_scotland_-pdf

 

Leader sets out council’s six month programme

Council Leader Adam McVey describes the Capital Coalition’s programme for the next six months, which aims to deliver substantial progress for Edinburgh …

As we pass the midpoint of another bumper festival season, our focus rightly remains on making the case for new powers, such as a visitor levy, to support future investment and to manage the impact of tourism in the city – as well as a licensing regime to regulate short term lets.

There are now 12,000 Edinburgh properties listed on AirBnB alone and, earlier this summer, our enforcement team found a lettings company running 40 unauthorised residential lets in one block in Western Harbour.

Put simply: we need more power to take stronger action.

Major public realm projects like the re-imagination of George Street and its surrounding streets – which just scooped a fantastic £20m in Sustrans funding – as well as the City Centre Transformation, City Mobility Plan and proposals for Low Emission Zones are hugely ambitious and will move substantially ahead as we move towards Christmas.

As well as transforming the way we get around and spend time in our city, we also need to move with the times and respond to changing retail trends. Towards the end of the year we’ll report back on our ongoing major consultation on the future of retail in the city centre, including Princes Street, which aims to make sure we’re making the most of our world famous thoroughfare.

Autumn sees the Transport Bill reach its final stages in Parliament, which amongst other things, will give local government the power to decide on a Workplace Parking Levy.

We believe that these powers, which have been used to such great effect by Nottingham Council, will allow us to invest in better and more public transport, reduce congestion and help to improve air quality – all contributing towards achieving our super-ambitious (but achievable) target of becoming a net-zero carbon Capital by 2030.

Tackling poverty and inequality are also vital to enabling everyone to share in this great city’s success. The Poverty Commission, which we brought together late last year, is already taking great strides in its work and is due to bring back its final recommendations early next year. There is no doubt these will be challenging for us as council – just as they will be for the city as whole.

We are continuing to invest heavily in our young people and in the buildings where they learn. Over the summer we’ve carried out extensive repair and maintenance across our school estate alongside work on other Council facilities and buildings. And later this month we’ll see spades in the ground for a brand new primary school in Broomhills – Edinburgh’s first new primary school in a generation.

In Early Years, we’ve got 3,000 pupils already receivng the additional hours and have recruited 360 new staff to help plan for the full rollout of 1,140 funded hours next August, with 79 partner providers on board and five forest kindergartens up and running by late October to add to the mix.

Meanwhile, work is due to get under way on the new Castlebrae High School towards the end of 2019, and four new classrooms at Queensferry Primary School will open next month, when we also expect to hear if we’ve been successful in our bid for funding for the next wave of of new schools, with Currie top of the list.

Health and Social Care services and the way they’re delivered are set for a shake-up with the rollout of a bold new vision that is modern, sustainable and tackles inequality. The Edinburgh Integration Joint Board’s ‘Strategic Plan’ aims to take our health and social care services to a place where, for the first time, we have our own ‘Edinburgh Model’ of health care, best suited to our people and our communities.

Our ambitious house-building programme is delivering results across the city and along with our housing association partners we currently have 2,300 affordable homes under construction. This autumn, we’ll submit a masterplan to create an exceptional new neighbourhood on the land around the new Meadowbank Sports Centre, comprising mixed tenure housing with a minimum of 35% affordable homes for social and mid-market rent.

Before Christmas, we’ll consult on a pivotal strategy to inform the city’s future development – the City Plan 2030. Starting in December, the Choices for City Plan 2030 consultation will gather residents’ views to help shape a sustainable, inclusive and successful Edinburgh for generations to come.

Planning ahead for Edinburgh’s future, while simultaneously driving up service standards in the here and now is critical for us. It’s vital we get the basics right and we’re continuing to drive up performance in waste and cleansing services and in our roads. Meanwhile, we’ll work to improve further on our best road condition score since 2014; major roads resurfacing schemes this financial year include £2m worth of investment in Lothian Road, Gilmerton Road, Portobello Road and Liberton Gardens.

Our 2050 Edinburgh City Vision will launch later this year having had the highest response of any previous engagement activity ever conducted by the Council with nearly 55,000 distinct visions were received from residents and organisations.

So, the next six months will be busy. A new vision for the city, substantial progress on the delivery of our Programme for the Capital and further improvement in the core services that we all rely upon. We remain committed to ensuring all residents can all share in its success with an inclusive economy and City.

As we move towards the half way point of our administration, we’ve not lost sight or drive in delivering on that agenda.

The council leader himself will be absent for part of that six months, of course. Adam and his partner have adopted two boys and Councillor McVey, Edinburgh’s youngest ever council leader, is taking a six-week paternity break from council duties – he’ll be back in October.

Green light for redevelopment of historic capital school

PLANNING permission has been approved for the sensitive re-development of one of south Edinburgh’s best-known buildings and site of a former school for the blind.

Proposals from premium homebuilder CALA Homes will breathe new life into what was once Edinburgh’s Royal Blind School at Craigmillar Park. Continue reading Green light for redevelopment of historic capital school

Time’s running out to have your say on short-term lets

City Council responds to Government consultation

The City of Edinburgh Council has published its response to the Scottish Government consultation on the regulation of short-term lets in Scotland. The consultation closes on MONDAY.

Continue reading Time’s running out to have your say on short-term lets

Scottish housing and care provider ships ‘home of the future’ to Manchester

A SPECIALIST housing and care provider has adopted an ingenious method of transporting its ‘home of the future’ to Europe’s largest housing festival – by building it across three shipping containers.

A working replica of the ‘Blackwood House’ was on display at the Chartered Institute of Housing’s (CIH) annual conference in Manchester from the 25th– 27th of June.

In order to showcase the innovative home in all its glory, the Blackwood team are building the house in shipping containers so it can be transported south of the border.

The pioneering home transforms the day-to-day lives of people who want to live independently with cutting edge technology and design that reimagines living space, redesigning it physically and technologically to make it more accessible.

The adapted shipping containers will allow conference attendees and potential partners to see the technology in action and find out first-hand why it can revolutionise independent living.

Simon Fitzpatrick, Development and Commercial Director at Blackwood, said: “It obviously represents a logistical challenge to get a Blackwood House replica down to Manchester so we came up with the innovative use of shipping containers to help.

“We’re passionate about the way our Blackwood Houses allow people to live as independently as possible and it’s exciting that we’re going to be able to display it at Europe’s largest housing conference.

“We believe in creating neighbourhoods with the Blackwood House at the very heart of them which is something partners at the conference can really get behind the movement for independent living – #ImIn.

“The Blackwood House provides a solution to the national housing crisis and we’re making it our mission to enable people who want to live independently really gain from technological advances.”

Blackwood has an ambitious development programme over the next five years and every aspect of the house has been carefully considered to remove any obstacles or issues that can disrupt daily life. It features electric doors that slide open and shut at the touch of a tablet and taking away the hassle of manoeuvring around it.

Other special features include high and low-level kitchen units that rise and fall, and contemporary moveable bathroom components that provide high levels of accessibility.

The property is ‘smart’, too, with technology playing a key role: lights, blinds, doors, entry systems and heating can all be controlled via Blackwood’s bespoke digital care system, CleverCogs™. Much of this technology will be able to be controlled by voice.

1,400 providers attend the CIH Conference with 98% of the largest housing associations in attendance.

There are over 12,000 visitors over the three days with around 33,000 meetings taking place on the show floor.

Headquartered in state of the art, wheelchair friendly offices in Edinburgh, Blackwood works in 29 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities, and embraces the challenge of innovating housing and care at a time when funding is increasingly limited.